Art That Doesn’t Sell
If you are an artist, musician, writer, or any kind of creative person, you’ve likely wondered what to do with your art that doesn’t sell. When I scroll through my Instagram feed, filled with artists of all kinds producing masterpiece after masterpiece, I can’t help but wonder:
Is my art even worth it? Will I ever be able to create art that sells? And if I do manage to do so, will I be happy with it?
Posting my art was never about gaining millions of followers. It was about being consistent with my craft. It was about my five followers cheering me on and encouraging me to keep going. It was about having a place to track my artistic journey.
But today, as I drown in others’ perfections, I no longer feel like my art would make any difference on the platform. Even when I try to keep up with new art forms, I end up replicating various styles that don’t fit my own, which takes away my individuality.
At the end of the day, I’m left with a collection of unfamiliar art that doesn’t sell.
So what do I do? I toss it in the bin. I cry for an hour, scribble in my diary, eat ice cream and go to sleep.
Afterwards, I look at my old drawings from school. I take out pieces I had laminated because, back then, I thought they were my best work. But looking at them now, I see a horse with a bad shape and googly eyes. I wonder what gave me the confidence to laminate something so amateurish.
I guess I wasn’t scrolling through Instagram and comparing myself to someone with an art degree who makes art for a living.
The point is, sometimes we compare our progress to others without knowing their journey before we see their end results on Instagram. We just haven’t gotten there yet.
All we can do is take inspiration from them. We, too, can achieve great things if we focus on our own ideas and methods. If we keep growing, learning, and moving forward, we’ll eventually create an art piece so good it’ll be worth laminating.
It’s okay if your art doesn’t sell right now. It doesn’t mean it never will.
